


The early bird

by Dummy_Writer



Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-05 18:53:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12195672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dummy_Writer/pseuds/Dummy_Writer
Summary: In which Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin calls in his favour when Harry is away on a mission and Merlin is the one to take the call and take the young man under his wing.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel was so shit it made me nostalgic for the first one, et voilà.

 

The call comes when Harry is in Italy, breaking up an art smuggling ring. Merlin gets the message in his stead and even as his fingers type out to order to stay the conviction of one Gary Unwin a little while longer, he wonders what he should do.

 

He remembers Lee Unwin well. All of those present on the day do. James (May he rest in peace) was a reckless agent in part because right up until the moment he died, he had never thought he deserved the title of Lancelot. The three who survived that bomb carried that death with them, always. To see what his son had turned into was a smack in the face of Lee’s memory and their own guilt.

 

He hacks the records, gets the boy’s file.

 

Gary ‘Eggsy’ Unwin. Once a potential Olympic gymnast, once a potential marine, now a boy in an estate with a criminal record. Wasted potential was difficult to stomach. Especially when looking a bit further got him the reason for it. Michelle Baker, formerly Unwin, and her young child, Eggsy’s half sister.  Dean Baker’s own record, riddled with the sort of cues that made it obvious the man bribed his way out of many a charge. Most telling of them all, the domestic violence ones.

 

Yes, wasted potential was difficult to stomach.

 

But that didn’t change the fact that Merlin had to think about how to handle the situation. Getting the boy’s charges dropped would be easy and Merlin could leave it at that.

 

They called it a _favour_ , after all. While the boy himself felt compelled to stay with his mother, indubitably to play the meat shield and turn Dean Baker’s rage upon him so that his mother and sister would be spared, Merlin felt no such compulsion. Letting him return to that situation, especially when the rage would be worse _now_ since the car that was crashed was in Dean Baker’s name, well it didn’t feel like he was doing him much of a favour.

 

Getting the boy’s prison sentence dropped would be giving him a pass but what he _needed_ was an opportunity.

 

And well, since the Lancelot trials were coming up, the first time they were replacing an agent since Bedivere in 2001, Merlin could do with some assistance updating the tests.

 

* * *

 

If Merlin was James, he would probably never reveal himself to Eggsy, only change things indirectly. Arrange for Dean Baker to be arrested or something. Maybe provide a scholarship or something for the former gymnast to improve his life. Be the silent benefactor to absolve the guilt.

 

But James was dead.

 

If Merlin was Harry he would probably make Eggsy his candidate after waxing poetic about Kingsman and Lee Unwin, throw in some references to the shit American movies he loved so much and talk of gentlemen and manners.

 

But Harry was in Italy.

 

It was all up to Merlin, not them.

 

And Merlin was a pragmatist. So he arranged to have the lad out of jail in exchange for working under his supervision. His connections knew him well enough to know that he was a slave driver and well, Kingsman did do a lot of servicing the community.

 

The boy talked back, made a bit of fuss about being used to clean up after posh gits but quieted when made aware of Kingsman and his father’s connection to it. When an exchange was struck, his good behaviour for all the footage Merlin had of Lee Unwin in training he clenched his jaw, blinked rapidly and agreed.

 

Between Merlin, Eggsy and Amelia, one of the plants they had planned to use, they modernised the training significantly. Eggsy broke records running through the obstacle courses and suggested where it needed its difficulty upped, suggested and ended up planning an entire test all revolving around driving fast and mad in cities while avoiding civilian casualties, while Amelia analysed all the psychological tricks they planned to use and rendered them morbid and twisted in a way that had Merlin briefing the in house psychiatrists to be ready. 

 

Whoever would be the new Lancelot would be put through hell.

 

It was very exciting.

 

And then Harry Hart returned to town and everything went to shit.

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

Harry Hart tumbles into London, gives the name and details of his candidate—a dime a dozen RAF boy with a trust fund—bets against his candidate and puts down 200 pounds on Percival’s one in the interdepartmental pool, toasts the brandy to Lancelot and hands over the codes he got from Italy to Merlin. It’s all humdrum really, for all that he’s a dramatic bastard it takes a lot for his artistic flair to come out. Harry’s been getting steadily blasé about Kingsman, not quite as dead on the inside about it as Arthur or Gawain, he still cares but it isn’t quite as fun for him as it used to be and it shows.

 

Which is worrying for Merlin.

 

The thing is, for such a discreet, quiet and distinguished ‘gentleman’. Harry has a sort of magnetism to him that all the other knights lack. More than once Merlin entertains the treacherous thought that Harry would make a brilliant Arthur. People _believe_ him, oddly enough. Not just believe in him and his abilities but they believe him even when he’s lying his arse off. Sometimes Merlin calls him in to the R &D department to test a new weapon right when his minions start to get down and second guess themselves. All Harry has to do is tell them, ‘I’m sure you’ll figure it out’ and they take his words to heart, treat their success as a strong probability not just a vague possibility.

 

Harry was just so contained and content with himself that it always earned him a reaction. From some it was irrational anger as they measured themselves against him and found themselves lacking, from others it solicited a deeply loyal, devotional sort of admiration.

 

And much to Merlin’s alarm he could see that same admiration blooming in Eggsy.

 

* * *

 

Eggsy was a good boy despite the life he lived. But for all that he talked a lot of crap about the folk with a silver spoon up their arse, for all that he was aware of the skewed power dynamics, he wasn’t a realist. Not even close.

 

Eggsy had dreams and hopes but no way of following them through because he just wasn’t realistic enough. He was very proud of the fact that he’d never grassed anyone up, conveniently ignorant of the fact that he could grass Dean and his lot up and change things. Oh, there would be others who would take Dean’s place, drug trading was a profitable business after all but it would buy Eggsy the time he needed and get the devil out of his house at least, even if it never really left the streets of his home.

 

Eggsy was a dreamer and that combined with Harry Hart’s brand of dynamic pull was wrecking the little happy trio of trainers that they were.

 

See, another time and Eggsy and Harry would have been good for one another. Already Merlin can see Harry gaining back a bit of that spark that he has been losing and Eggsy tries harder when Harry is around.

 

A pensive Eggsy comes to him after Amelia ‘drowns’ to teach the candidates a lesson. The lot created snorkels and breathed through them, didn’t even try to find a way out. Once the ten minute mark passed, Merlin drained the room, told them all they failed and had Amelia’s ‘body’ taken out. Eggsy had been given the task to note down all interactions and the candidates’ body language as Merlin left the observation booth and Harry insisted upon staying.

 

They come out of the booth looking odd. Eggsy, frowning and deep in thought while Harry, wistful and melancholy. They part ways, Harry off to take the bullet train back to the shop while Eggsy follows Merlin to command centre where screens display the feeds from a multitude of cameras.

 

“You think I could be an agent?”

 

Ah, so that’s what this is about, Harry fucking Hart’s wishful fantasy of Eggsy as his candidate.

 

“Could you be an agent, go into the field, spy on people, shoot things, seduce information out of marks, blow things up, save people? Yes.” A muscle in Eggsy’s jaw twitches and Merlin continues. “Could you be an agent, lie to your mum about what you were doing, show up for Sunday roast with bruises and a decent explanation for it, go undercover for months even if it means missing Daisy’s birthday? No.”

 

Merlin pulls up the feed of the candidates, in bed but all wide awake, alternating between staring above them and looking at the empty bed where Amelia had put her things earlier that evening. “That lot is going to spend the next six months in those barracks just to get a bit closer to the Lancelot position. You really think you could do that?”

 

“Harry said-” 

 

Merlin rolls his eyes, “Harry’s last family died some fifteen years ago and he hasn’t had a relationship in longer than that. The man has no clue what it’s like having a responsibility towards people.”

 

Finally Merlin gets some silence to work in. He manages to prepare the dossiers for Gawain’s mission, approve the budgets for four projects and tracks down the safe houses of a terrorist organisation before Eggsy speaks again.

 

“So, Harry’s single, is he?”

 

And Merlin sighs.

 


End file.
